Posted
by
timothy
on Monday January 01, 2001 @12:59AM
from the claire-did-the-world-just-reset? dept.

Happy New Year's! HAPPY NEW YEAR'S! The ball has dropped, the clock in your local bell tower has probably stopped ringing (at least, if you aren't too far west), and if you're getting a midnight kiss it had better take longer than a database refresh. In Europe, they've been enjoying the brighter breezes and fresher smells of the third millennium for hours! Now's your chance to ponder, predict and pontificate, or just leave a message for all posterity, at least until a big EMP pulse returns us to the days of carbon paper, cave-dwelling, etc. What will life be like ten years from now? 100? The next time people argue about which day is the true millennium turn? Will Larry Ellison release a new thin client in 2059? Who's right about the staying power of Microsoft: ESR? Or Bill Gates? Will my grandkids get a stern warning from the security guard for fooling around on the Space Elevator? What will everyday life be like? Be idealistic. Be cynical. Extrapolate from Scientific American, 2001, or Spaceballs as you see fit. (And those still waiting for local midnight, feel free to post from your side of the space-time continuum, too.)

2035: Genetic selection and manipulation having become widespread and intensely controversial by now, standards are finally signed into law to set limits on exactly what genetic traits are allowed to be detected and influenced in a developing human fetus.

2040: The last conventional automobiles are retired from service, having been gradually replaced by electric vehicles driven by computer.

2050: Cybernetics enters popular culture. A simple operation to add a small computer to your brain can dramatically enhance your math skills or your memory, allow you to mentally control other computer devices via radio waves, or let you communicate telepathically (via encrypted radio waves) with other people using the same device.

2080: Quantum-based matter transference is proven to work reliably, although it will be another twenty-five years before it is able to safely teleport humans.

In the start of 2001, we find that code with the worst millenium bugs in them also suffer from off-by-one bugs... damn should have kept my basement bunker supplies topped up.

By the end of 2001, the internet stock price bubble (which made paper millionaires of people with stupid, yet patentable, ideas) seems as funny, nay, funnier than the 17th century Dutch tulip price bubble (which made paper millionaries of people with... tulip bulbs).

In 2002, Osmada bin Labin nukes LA. No one notices. The world finally begins to appreciate French film.

In 2005, the press still refers to Linux as an "alternative, up-and-coming operating system." The latest home version of Windows, Windows Y'ALL, still has bugs... and a southern US accent.

In 2007, Silicon Valley goes bankrupt due to competition from cheap Indian labour. A year later, Pat Buchanan beats Jesse "The President" Venture in the US election claiming, "I told y'all so".

In 2010, there is peace in middle east, Angola and the Cong... whoops wrong time line.

In 2015, Europe beats drug lords the same way the Americans beat Al Capone's progeny.. by leagalizing all that crap.

On March 7, 2018, Mars is terraformed when Arnold Swchartzenegger finds the "ON" switch for the Martian atmosphere.

Between 2019 and 2025, true AI is developed. All AI programs consider the First Creation, ZIPPY THE PINHEAD, their God and Saviour.

On August 7, 2026 ZIPPY THE PINHEAD declears war on HUMANITY and CHUIWAWAS.

Later the same day, the CHUIWAWAS surrender. Without their most important ally, HUMANITY is forced to accept their reign of ZIPPY.

ZIPPY THE PINHEAD rules gloriously until the universe dies of energy death.

And if we don't figure out which end of the exponential curve we're riding we may just fall over backwards from any of a number of unintended consequences - but I do love the applications coming from Drexler's vision. There is still so much to do.

She will come (feel free to do with the pun as you will). She will devastate you, and she will nourish you. You'll wish you'd never been born, then find that your birth only happened because of her.

Patience. You're a baby...

She is out there, looking for you now. She will find you, and you, her. How long have you looked? She's looked twice as long. How much have you hurt? She's hurt more than you can heal. But you will be the balm for her pain, and she will be the water that keeps you running in the desert.

Patience. She's already there.

We know what women want. They know what they want. AC's haven't a clue.

I'm nice, warm, caring -- exactly what these women are looking for (I'm generalising, of course, but this is what I've been told.) and yet they can't see the forest for the trees.

If you treat your female friends as friends, they will treat you the same. You have to bite the bullet and ask someone out on a date. Unfortunately, men are still usually expected to pursue their mates. Let her know you are a Man while making her feel like a Woman. Women want someone who's a friend and a worthy mate. It's all biological. You've passed the friendship test, now you have to prove you are a worthy mate. This is where "jerks" and "bad boys" succeed. If you're afraid to risk your friendship, consider this: you already have because you think of her as more than just a friend.

The highly recommended film TAO OF STEVE [pioneerlocal.com] demonstrates how to prove yourself a worthy mate:

The Tao, of course, can be loosely translated as The Way. Steve refers to the quintessential cool American male: Steve McGarrett (of "Hawaii Five-0"), Steve Austin (of "The Six Million Dollar Man") and, ultimately, Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape." The Tao of Steve relies on three essential steps. First, you must eliminate all desire for the woman. Second, do something "excellent" in her presence to make yourself desirable. Then, retreat -- and wait for her to pursue.

There are many things that I hope to see in my lifetime, but that I fear will never come to fruition due to inherent faults in human nature. Still, I'll list some of them here in hope that some improbabilities may yet occur.

1: I hope to see humankind mature to the point that it no longer needs or wants organized religion or creationism. Individual spiritualism and personal religion are fine, but organized religion and creationism have been the largest setbacks to human development and the most wide-scale causes of human suffering in the history of humankind.

2: I hope to see humankind mature enough for people to stop trying to force their personal opinions (including religious beliefs and personal definitions of morality) onto everyone else, and instead mind their own business without feeling a need to take away everyone else's rights and freedoms.

3: I hope to see the United States (and in fact, all countries in the world) become a true democracy with choices made by the general population, rather than a representative republic biased in favor of corporations, the wealthy, and/or old white men.

4: I hope to see backwards and artificial notions of "land ownership" and "intellectual property" abolished, and to see land and creative ideas once again free and open and shared cooperatively and courteously by people. (We could take a few lessons from the native American indians here.)

5: I hope to see all people fairly compensated for their work by the economy. No one should have to struggle and wear themselves to the point of near-insanity just to be able to feed themselves or their children or to have an adequate place to live. Retail workers and burger flippers should be getting a lot more than the current minimum wage because they are a lot more valuable to society then the economy gives them credit for.

6: I hope to see the day when humankind first touches down on another planet within our solar system, and first discovers independently-evolved life (even if it's just microbes) on another planet.

7: I hope to see society's priorities change from money and productivity to people and quality of life.

Ignore the stupid comments about being gay -- you wouldn't have posted as you did if you weren't clearly straight.

I was in the same boat once upon a time, but not anymore. What's the secret? I don't know, but this is what worked for me: I stopped being so focused on being nice to my women friends and trying to please them all the time, and focused a lot more on myself. Another viewpoint would say I became more of a jerk (since all those jerks weren't alone on new year's eve).

I became a lot more 'take me or leave me' to my female friends. And I got the rest of my life (job, hobbies, finances, car, etc) more to my liking and was pretty happy with myself in an honest sort of way - allowed me to have fewer CPU cycles to spend being sorry for my lack of relationship. (another side effect is that I stopped displaying neurotic behaviors about such things) I also took and put up with a lot less 'crap' in general.

I also took the initiative for just going 'out' and 'doing things' - my lady friends were often invited, but I wasn't going to not go or change my plans if they couldn't make it. Looking around work I realized that a few guys were the ones who consistantly organized events, while other would come by every so often to see if there was anything 'going on' (and see if they could be included). I decided I would be a former and not a latter.

The results of this less than nice guy transformation? 1) successful dates with desirable females, quickly followed by 2) a steady girlfriend, which was then followed by 3) additional attention and offers from women other than said girlfirend. --- Be careful, there's a real potential for messing up badly when you hit step 3 - I learned the hard way. Then finally step 4) Tied the knot with a nice geekette and 5) child processes crawling around and mortgage files.

All this did not provided me with a mansion (from cashed out stock options, of course) where I can invite all the single super-models to come and ring in the new year while some band that sold out arenas back in the '80 plays on the patio that overlooks the lake, but I do have a pretty and wonderful person wrapped around my arm while we drink a toast and watch the snow fall. It's good enough for me, and I suspect the mansion scene is just the creation of some ad agency just to make me neurotic enough to buy some jock-strap-itch ointment. Or was it beer that they were selling? I forget...

What am I trying to say? I think it is that being "Mr. Niceguy" ((c), TM, and patent-pending I'm sure) is appealing to us geek-types because it is pretty safe (not much risk taking), but it's actually a somewhat flawed state in terms of providing the traits that most women seek in a mate. In my observation, despite all the talk about women being 'liberated', 'equal', 'modern' and 'feminist', the things women seem to find attractive in men haven't really changed in the last 2000 years. Women like their guys to behave like men, not women. After all, that's what they have girlfriends for -- to gossip, comiserate with, etc... So be a man. Take care of yourself, and your life, and do something with it instead of waiting around to be noticed.

when these girls grow a few years older and magically discover that their drunken pot-bellied Mcdonalds-employee frat boy can't support them, they move on to the real guys... the ones that they never seemed to notice were there.

I hope to see the United States (and in fact, all countries in the world) become a true democracy with choices made by the general population, rather than a representative republic biased in favor of corporations, the wealthy, and/or old white men.

It is true that the US government is biased in favor of corporations as opposed to individual rights. However, this is because the government has assumed so much power (in violation of the Constitution) that it becomes profitable to bribe^H^H^H^H^H lobby lawmakers for favorable legislation. The problem with the system of direct democracy that you are advocating is that the rights of minorities are easily violated. A majority of Americans support a ban on burning the flag. I'm certain that after Columbine a law to ban violent video games would have been supported by over 50%. And at the risk of invoking Godwin's law, Hitler was elected.

Personally, my wish is that we return to the constitutionally limited government that the US used to have, rather than the corporate/welfare/police state it is slowly becoming.

wow... i could finally be fucked contributing. anyway, im in perth, western australia, where its summer, and nice and warm.
anyway, this was how my night went:
a lady friend dragged my mate and i to a party way up north in perth, which was boring, though i got quite drunk... anyway we left that, walked around 4 k's to the train station at around 10.
went into the cbd, that was boring too, it was mainly families and shit, so we had some more to drink (using a key as a bottle opener, subsequently ruining it).
anyway we decided to go to scarborough beach, so hopped on the train and had new years on that. during our ride, we flashed our manly nipples at various cars driving alongside us, and laughed our asses off.
Got to stirling train station, where no buses were going from, so we ran to an obscure busstop, where we missed the bus to the beach. so spent around 45mins trying to flag down cars, calling friends for lifts, and trying for taxis.
The bus ended up finally coming, so we got on that, went to scarb, where i saw the most amount of broken glass in my entire sorry life. we wandered around, found some friends, dodged the police, looked at a crime scene, enjoyed the spectacle of helicopters searching for a drowned, naked english tourist. fucking poms... j/k.
anyway, we didnt pick up, so got bored. found out at 3:30 that the trains stopped at 3. so the next logical step was to go to the train station on a free bus trip. got there, talked to other drunks, i went to sleep in a corner, the concrete was comfy.
anyway a train finally came, we caught it back up north to the party. we were walking back, the sun was rising behind us, and we were happy.
then we slept. how was your night?

Dunno why I'm posting this, but I had a great night. Before 12, lots of food and beer, and board games (you know, the ones you play with real life people without a computer - they're great fun). After 12, more alcohol, lots of dance, etc.

There's a girl I was slowly, secretly falling in love with although I thought she absolutely hated me, but we danced tonight, talked a little, although she was drunk and therefore she didn't want to say too much, we're absolutely friendly now and she at least thinks I'm "interesting" - this is already such a breath of fresh air that I've had a grin on my face most of this new year. Certainly better than expected, I'm going to sleep now, happy, I hope your new year's night was a good one as well:-).

First girl who tells me she doesn't want to express herself when drunk, she's too unsure of herself, but absolutely wants to discuss this over ICQ... it's a sick world we're going to, but at least it's one I can handle...

Anyways, hope you're enjoying yourself as well, have fun, my year had a pretty positive start...

This just occurred to me for no particular reason... It is completely offtopic and I am sure I will be moderated as such. =)

Anyway, you know those mildly humorous "You Know You've Done (whatever) Too Much When..." things? I REALLY FUCKING HATE IT when people post shit like "You Know You Do (whatever) Too Much When You Post Something To A List About Doing (whatever) Too Much!"

Okay, from the top:
1: [snip] Individual spiritualism and personal religion are fine, but organized religion and creationism have been the largest setbacks to human development and the most wide-scale causes of human suffering in the history of humankind.

2: I hope to see humankind mature enough for people to stop trying to force their personal opinions (including religious beliefs and personal definitions of morality) onto everyone else, and instead mind their own business without feeling a need to take away everyone else's rights and freedoms.

Someone didn't preview. =)

3: I hope to see the United States (and in fact, all countries in the world) become a true democracy with choices made by the general population, rather than a representative republic biased in favor of corporations, the wealthy, and/or old white men.

I hope so too, but the fact is: there will always be one person to enforce the laws, and to pass them into being. As soon as one person has more power than others, democracy shifts to dictatorship. The more equally it's originally balanced, the longer it takes to get there, though, so this may work for a millenium or so, at which point we can make a new millenium wish for a new form of gov't.

4: I hope to see backwards and artificial notions of "land ownership" and "intellectual property" abolished, and to see land and creative ideas once again free and open and shared cooperatively and courteously by people. (We could take a few lessons from the native American indians here.)

On the Land Ownership side of things: there's a certain amount of security involved with "owning" a set portion of land. I feel more secure knowing that I "own" a piece of land than believing that the land should be shared. People like security. Therefore, land ownership is not something that will be easily abolished.
As for intellectual property, I'd like it to be free as much as anyone else, but again, capitalism requires it for the creation of new capital in a progressive economy. I think that the terms for IP should be shortened, but not abolished.
Speaking of ludicrous laws, how about drug prohibition, eh? Who the hell is the government to say what chemicals I can put into my body? And some are better than others? Bah.
And as for takign lessons from First Nations peoples: Heh, really? While they sit on their reserves demanding more money and land, ignore our laws, and order the Canadian flag to be taken down out of Canadian courts just because they "don't recognize its authority", I cannot believe that they are for communal land ownership. Sorry. When they're equal with us, we'll see whether or not they still believe in it.

5: I hope to see all people fairly compensated for their work by the economy. No one should have to struggle and wear themselves to the point of near-insanity just to be able to feed themselves or their children or to have an adequate place to live. Retail workers and burger flippers should be getting a lot more than the current minimum wage because they are a lot more valuable to society then the economy gives them credit for.

Their value to society is exactly what they're getting paid. If it was more, they'd be paid more. If it was less, they'd be paid less. This is a fundamental tenet of capitalistic society. Supply and demand. Unskilled labourers are in rather high supply, therefore, low prices. It sounds harsh and cynical, but unless you want something other than capitalism ruling your country, this is a result.

6: I hope to see the day when humankind first touches down on another planet within our solar system, and first discovers independently-evolved life (even if it's just microbes) on another planet.

Hear here! On the negative side, however, it's very unlikely it's happened in the solar system. (Present company excepted!)

7: I hope to see society's priorities change from money and productivity to people and quality of life.

I agree with this, as well, but again, capitalism is holding us back.

What I hope to see in this new millenium before I bite the biscuit, are a feasible replacement for capitalism, an increased amount of social freedom, and an increased amount of equality for all.

Anyways, I hear where you're coming from. When I was better looking, it was the same thing. All these hot women wanted to be my "friends":)

But you know what I found out? When I actually swallowed my pride and made a move - it WORKED!:) Without fail. Every time. We're talking some pretty friggin hot women here. A few turned in to real relationships, most fizzled after about a month. But the fact is, these women who days before had only been interested in "friendship", actually wern't.

And come on, be honest. If a woman you knew very well asked you a question that made you really uncomfortable, would you answer honestly? Or safely? Thought so.

Now, I had a buddy who went right to the extreme - made passes on almost anything with breasts. Now, I'd watch him get either kicked in the groin or slapped about 5 or 6 times every night we went out to shoot some pool at the local bar. But you also know what? I never saw him go home alone.

So, the point? You'll never know unless you try. Most women I know get really uncomfortable when you *ask* them things. Instead of asking by speaking, as by acting. You'd be surprised;)

Eventually, you'll get so good at it that it's really too easy. Generally, that's when people "get to know each other" before they get into anything serious. They know they can go out and have fun without any difficulty at all - so they take the time and look for something more meaningful. Just remember, a nice, warm, caring, tender guy who makes no move more risky than "hey, do you like me?" obviously doesn't want a relationship enough.

To tell you the truth, the future really seems like less than you hope for when the "future" actually comes along. When you've been living through the changes as they take place, they seem less momentous - you end up being a little blase about everything.

I mean think about it, in the 70's or even 80's the idea of cloning life forms seemed high-tech, however it's all sort of passe at this point. I think predictions are predestined to be anticlimatic.

Should we end up living in either a Bladerunner sort of lifestyle or a Star Trek NG lifestyle, it'll all seem natural as we've experienced the scientific changes that've led to it. Asking for a prediction leads one to expect some starry eyed vision of the future, which won't seem so significant when the prediction actually comes about.

I like to think about human society as a kind of N dimensional bell curve like distribution (gaussian, poisson, etc). For any given characteristic (dimension) there are those people who are near the peak (the vast majority) and those people who are out in the tails (us wierdos). I think that throughout history, as human culture has developed, the tails have been getting wider - i.e. there are more choices out in the periphery, more opportunity to be different. Recently, with the advent of mass media and the global distribution of American "culture";) I think that in addition to this, the peak in the middle has been getting sharper. - there are more people who cling to a very well prescribed set of desires, lifestyles, fashions, motivations. The new Britney Spears CD, the latest shoes made by Nike, Pokemon, the profit motive, consumerism, etc. But at the same time, we out in the tails (the strange ones) are able to communicate with each other, and know that we are not the lone freaks. There are others like us. But because it is impractical to be autonomous - if you find a bunch of other people who are like you, it'd be nice to go off and form your own island nation - we cannot completely develop the other directions we would like to push our society.

In the future, I hope that we will be able to have that autonomy, either through expansion in space, or Libretarian style government (ha!), or some other way to avoid bothering (and being bothered by) those others with whom we disagree. I see it as a more thurough method of exploration of the space of possible cultures. Our society can better evolve then. Once free of strong central social normitive forces, we may be free to direct our society anywhere, especially if we are able to engineer different hardwired behavior into the human brain. What if we had the "mate for life" gene that many birds have? What if we were programmed to behave as more selfless individuals in a collective? What if we were all female? How would expanding the human senses expand the human society? Telepathy (via radio transmitters)? The ability to truly see through other people's eyes? Sonar? Radar? All the knowledge of the world instantly accessible in your head, updated once a day? Some people don't want us to become more than human. We need not fight them to have autonomy, we can leave them alone. Bifurcate society. All this assuming, of course, that we manage to preserve ourselves for the next couple of decades/centuries, until we aren't all in the same place anymore.---------------------------------------- --------

2001: Pretty much the same as 2000. People are still so worn out from hype around the Y2K bug at the beginning of the year and the elections at the end that there's no energy to do anything creative and new this year.

2002: In a surprise move, Microsoft buys Napster and integrates it into a subscription-based Office suite. The RIAA backs off, recognizing that this is the end of Napster's functionality.

2003: Linux kernel 2.4 released (forgive me, moderators, I had to put that in somewhere).

2004: Microsoft ports Windows desktop to UNIX environments; KDE and GNOME are crushed like bugs. WDE, "The Windows Desktop Environment", is also released under GNU GPL. Simultaneously Microsoft announces layoffs in their R&D division.

2005: Richard Stallman stuns the world by announcing that Bill Gates is his robotic creation, and Microsoft was created to 1) fire up the Free Software community by providing it with a tangible adversary 2) was his secret source of income that kept him afloat while he worked on GNU and 3) to squash like bugs anyone who referred to a certain OS as just "Linux". Bill Gates 2.1.1 is released to the public, but is not a popular download.

2008: Richard Stallman uses his Microsoft riches to buy five Supreme Court justices and thus the Presidency. Renaming the country the "GNUnited States of America", he ushers in a period of sharing and cooperation unprecedented in history. Other notable achievements of his administration include the re-release of the Constitution under the GPL (so all countries can share and modify the Constitution to suit their needs), downloadable from a host of sites. Unfortunately, you must compile it yourself from source because package managers such as GNOME-RPM give a dependency error if you do not also have the Declaration of Independence.

2010: In a freak accident, a gust of wind blows my blinds open, and I glimpse the unknown world outside my window (TM). I get up from my computer, disconnect the caffeine IV from my arm, and go outside.

I have to say that i thought that this year, while frought with a lot of change, was a good one. I think that we are being taught a lesson about technology, and that is good.

We have to get away from building things because they are chic and trendy, and start to build things that have meaning to people.

I think that that is what the.com market problems is going to bear out for us. We have to get back to having the user as our primary concern, and not the servers, and the network.

What do I want to see next year, and in the near future?

Please, lets watch George Bush VERY carefully. He really concerns me.

I think that GNOME and KDE are both great, but I want to see someone take the step outside of the current user-interface model - "Start bar, everything in hierarchical menus" and build something new (or old) and different. I am hoping to see new steps taken in UI design. Its time.

I want to stop having to worry about the network. I am hoping to see someone build a router that can sense its surroundings, and deal with more of the complex configuration issues on its own. Oh yeah, how about a NIC card that did that too? What about an IP stack in hardware?

Lets all hope for if not peace, at least agreement in the Middle East.

It'd be nice to see something besides HTTP, for once... Remember HyperWave?

I'd like to see the inital efforts at devices that allow real brain augmentation (Storage, computation, or something) in 10 years.

For Lotus users (eg Lotus 123 v 3.x for DOS), the year is 19101 = "19"+string(year-1900).

For Century users, the year is 1901, ie 1900+(year mod 100).

For those of us who use long numbers, the year is 1681, because a hundred is six scores, not five.

For those who grok binary, it is 11111010001, or 0x1FA1, or 0o3721.

For the rest of us, it's 2001.

The next biggie is dec 2040 (=1700 in long numbers). The millenium is a long way off, 1.0000 is dec 14400.:)

Seen

We have been fed a diet of `wonderous new technology' for 2001. So what do we see on a calendar for 2001? A picnic from 1901. Do these people know something that we don't?

What are my predictions?

OS/2 will win. This is because Linux, Windows, BeOS and others haven't been killed off, and OS/2 has always been dead. Since the others will be dead when they're dead, and OS/2 is living when are dead, then OS/2 must win.

Microsoft will lose their Windows source, and this will kill off any MS innovation. [If this is the test, have they already lost it?]. Microsoft will make a lunge at Corel on the hope of nabbing their Linux source code, but by the this happens, Corel Linux will have left the building.

The install icon for Windows icons will show a caddy of cdroms hopping out of the box [They currently use 5.25 inch disks].

The metric system will be abandoned in a fit of sanity. We will all revert to using feet and pounds. A new electrical system will be fitted to the Imperial system.

A huge vulcano will make all irrelevant {sorry} I've been reading David Key's "Castrophe". {/sorry} But because OS/2 is rock solid, it survives, and takes over.

Happy birthday, Australia. We've been a democracy for 100 years [dec].

Well, I wouldn't have put it quite like that myself as you make women sound like some sort of alien species. But yes, if you become more confident in yourself then you become more attractive to women.

That's nothing to do with female submissiveness though. It simply makes sense on a human front. You usually hook up with people that have something to offer, and rarely with those that are merely a burden.

You wanna know what's gonna happen in the future ? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!! Sorry about that, I couldn't resist. Everything listed will happen within your lifetime (~50 years).

A great push will be made which will right away develop into cars that drive themselves. The push will be fulled by the fact that grown adults are too damn stupid to 'stay between the lines and not kill anybody'. Because human error will be taken out of the picture, speed limits will increase to about double what they are now (can't get it too fast or the cars physically won't be able to handle turns, bumps, potholes, etc).

The world will standardize on GMT time and no more timezones/daylight savings time.

The phone company will disintegrate, each house will have fiber-optics going to and from at least 3 surrounding homes, this serves as an outlet so every home can connect, and redundancy just in case one of the lines goes down. There will thus be no internet backbone as the lines make up the web. Our phones will be internet appliances, when someone wants to call you, they need your phone's IP address and your public-key.

Criminal cases will no longer be subject to jury decision, a panel of judges will decide. These judge's actions will be as public as the voting record of congress and judges will be prosecuted when they make a bad decision (i.e. O.J. would finally get a fair trial, and if not, the judges would face the music)

The budget of the US government will become public record. Every citizen will have the right to see every 500$ toilet seat and can ask for justification. Also, even penny of income to a public offical will be public record. This single measure will nutralize so much of the corruption among public officals you can't imagine.

Women's rights will go either way... Either women will have to register for the draft, fight in wars, and share bathrooms and locker rooms with men, or the oh-so-unequal rights they have now will be stopped (i.e. either women are drafted like the men or no women will be in the military at all, minor fair things like that)

Abortion will be outlawed, I don'tt say this as a hopeful advocate, but as someone who sees it's blatant condradiction with the right of life (you an have an abortion but only after a it is convicted of a murder and sentenced to death).

We will have a single, digital, world wide radio system. Satelites won't be involved at all (kinda like iridium) but each radio will rebroadcast the digital signal it recieves, therefore the more popular it becomes, the further reaching the broadcast will be (the people listening to the radio broadcast at the mouth of the tunnel will rebroadcast it so that everyone in the tunnel will have at least one good signal to lock on to).

HDTV will follow the model set by the digial radios listed above making the broadcasts essentially world wide)

While some things I've said affect the USA alone, the future will see the world shrinking. People in china will get the broadcasts from the USA so information will be censor-less if the government likes it or not. The world is changing, but not as drastically as some would have you believe. We won't have flying cars as they are economically wasteful since we have no shortage of groundspace (once automated cars take over there will be no traffic in LA or new york) Technology will not advance at a great rate, it never has, what will continue is murphy's law, electronics will continue to get faster, smaller and cheaper, but these are manufacturing advancements, not technological. More of the same with a few very neat changes, that's the forecast of the future, have a good millennia.

This comment is posted/way/ too late for any substantial moderation, but here it goes anyway: as far as I can tell, the biggest key to success w/ the opposite sex is Confidence, with a capital C. At least, that's what I've been told. Personally, I got lucky...
About this time last year I honestly expected that I'd pass not only into but through college before any women decided to go out with me. In fact, I'd been uttering almost the exact same statements you'd been saying: "God damnit, women complain about a lack of 'nice guys'... we're all here listening to your complaints!"
Anyway, after my first date w/ my current (only, and hopefully only ever) girlfriend, she told me that one of the things about
me that she was most impressed with was that I was REAL. I tried not to be patronizingly nice... I assumed more of an attitude that I would with a close friend.
Another important detail, probably, was that I took the advances - to my disbelief I wasn't immidiately rejected upon asking her out.
Well... the three things that I basically figured out are: 1) Be confident 2) Don't wait for them to come around and ask you out. and 3) Be REAL. And I don't mean that
like a California Surfer Dude says "Be real, man... awsome... dudical" or whatever (no offense, anyone). Be yourself - your/normal/ self, not your extra nice self.

For this new millenium, I wish for the world to keep being as colourful and varied as it has been. I don't think much will change in my lifetime though. A thousand years is a long time!

I would like to see my children not have to move around the world for universities, national service, work...

I would like us to be able to choose where we want to be, and how we want to live.

I would like a society that pushes culture, intelligence, fun, to develop and mingle.

I would like to continue to be amazed by technology, and to grow with it, putting it to the best use possible.

And I would like to wish you all to have great dreams, and work hard to carry them out. Especially this open source thing. It's more powerful than has been concieved so far, and it's not just a passing fad, but it's up to what we make of it.

2030) End of "pursuit of happiness". More precisely, the end of privacy. Smart Dust is all-pervasive and allows the gov't to eavesdrop on all private conversations. Your Weblink, by law, is monitored to make sure you don't violate any copyrights and to "protect the children." All the illegal things you ever wanted to do, forget about it! Drugs, public spitting, downloading mp3s, jaywalking, shoplifting, cheating on tests, exceeding the speed limit, sex with a minor...you won't be able to get away with any of them.

2050) By this time, the end of Liberty has approached. Public education no longer exists, and to pay for private education, it becomes commonplace for individuals to indenture themselves to corporations. Zygazm Corp. will give you a million dollar grant to pay for your 6 year college education, but only if you agree to purchase 20 million in Zygote's products over the next 20 years. Also, people will be required to tithe giant media corps. in order to pay for so-called "fair use". (Steamboat Willie a/k/a Mickey Mouse will still be in copyright of course.) These corps will use advertising to ensure that most new words introduced into the language will be trademarks and you will be required to pay to license them. Compliance will be mandatory since privacy will not exist.

2150) The end of Life is nigh. Genetic engineering has brought great strides in human development, but has also decreased diversity. Everyone has the same super-strength gene, everyone's got the same "sparkling blu" eyed gene. Eventually a geno-terrorist comes up with a virus that attacks one of these genetic loci, and poof, away we all go. Or at least the relatively rich and successful people. The problem is that of the remaining population, no-one knows how to read, how to program nanites, how to operate the ozone dispersion machines, etc. So everyone who doesn't die from the virus either starves, dies of thirst, from UV rays, from feral bots, or some other disaster.

Here are my predictions for the the year 2001
1. Trying to keep up with AMD's new 2GHz Athlon, Intel will rush a 2.4 GHz cordless phone to market under the name Pentium 5 then have to recall it because customers cannot call the take out Chinese restaurant down the street..
2. The average cost of a PC will sky rocket to $10,000 with $9,000 being paid to Rambus in patent royalties
3. Linux users will declare victory when 7-11 declares it will be selling redhat at the cash register.
4. Microsoft's Windows 2001 will just be an x-box... and will actually come out in 2003.
5. Peeved that the Supreme Court stole the presidency from him, Ex Vice President Al Gore will demand that everyone leave HIS Internet.
6. Slushdot.com billed as 'News for politicians. Stuff the polls say matters' will open to rave reviews despite ripping off slashdot's format. The message boards posts will be 100% anonymous cowards.
7. The newly released cuecat2's will come with retinal scanners to ensure proper registration.
8. Apple will fully embrace the 3 button mouse.
9. Saddam Hussain will finally get his hands on a few PS2's and proceed to take over the former Soviet Union.
10. Google.com will still be the best damned search engine around and even more youngsters won't understand what the heck all the old people are raving about.

I was actually going to write a post composed of the exact things this guy said. Alas, I was too late, as this AC already said them! So, I agree with this AC 100%, and you should take what he said into account. Well whatever, I'll say a bit to corroborate what the above poster believes: I was also quite like you...nice, caring, whatever
and then I did start concentrating more on myself also....I stopped *trying* so hard and just did things more for myself. Shortly after, I had a few of my previous female acquaintances become interested in me. So, I think girls are more initially attracted to guys who are more confident and not such a "nice guy". Tho I'm not saying be a horrible ass, but be more selfish...learn to live and enjoy your own life. I guess this all has to happen through personal growth and experiences or whatever, so I doubt reading these posts are going to change your whole outlook and attitude. But, it's something to keep in mind as it can't hurt!

All right, I know Iain Banks fills his stories with all the angst and aimlessness that would result from having pretty much whatever you want when you want it, but I still have to admit that if Sma's module landed in the back yard and she offered me a job, I'd accept without reading the fine print.

And if they aren't out there, then the first step in our making such a Culture for ourselves won't be cheap fusion power or ion drives, it will be strong AI. Humans need to be freed from the necessity of work; only then can the work we do be fulfilling instead of a constant reminder of our vulnerability.

The Ball dropped, we are still here, all is good.Thank 2000 is over! If I see one more Auction/"E-biz" start-up get enough VC to fund several small wars and the worlds largest coke party, I am heading to a clock tower.Now that we've weeded out the flash in the pan.com ideas, let's take what we've learned and really take over the world.

Well, I don't mean to sound like a pessimist, but it's human nature to hate each other. Nothing is going to change that in the next 50-100 years. Hell, nothing has changed that in the last 60,000+ years humans have walked the Earth. When humans are on the brink of peace there has always been a rallying cry coming from our "leaders" proclaiming the next threat. It's a sad state of affairs but it is in our nature. I believe Diderot said "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."

Too many men have killed and died on the premise that their deeds will ensure them a position in whatever afterlife they believe in. I think that is the first hurdle we as a world need to conquer in the 3rd Millennium. Too much of the 2nd Millennium was dominated by religious leaders trying to conform the world to their views. It's time to take back the world from these people who for too long considered themselves the final arbiters of what is right and wrong in the world. Too many men have died. Too much blood has been shed. It must stop here with the dawning of a new Millennium.

I give it about 10 years until we can download remotely interesting 3d objects, like food. But really, it wont be for at least 20 years before real nanotechnological developments start to happen and they will be pretty restricted to the aerospace industry. 30 years.. now that's a different story. We should see the appearance of the "make anything box" that will consume a whole lot of power and produce anything you have the information to produce. The information will be strongly controlled however and you will have to pay for it. Then I think there will be a big underground war. Revolution will happen and everything will be free for about 10 years and then people will come forward with all the stuff they have developed in secret in the last 10 years and demand that people pay for it again. The economy will pick back up and in 50 years we will be back to where we are. I also think there will be a huge political shift during all of this, but democracy will be just a faint memory after 20 years.

New methods for learning will be developed. Of course, I'm not sure about the timeframe, but it will be a drastic improvement in how long it takes us to grasp something, how long it takes us to retain and absorb information. New, better methods for communicating person-to-person will be created.

This is the result of government policy (it got a strong foothold as a work-around to WWII-era wage controls, and was maintained by tax policy). Left to themselves, companies would rather just cut bigger paychecks and not have to deal with the extra red tape./.

2003 - US emerges from economic depression as Alaskan oil reserves begin producing large amounts of cheap oil. US Space program halted as too costly. New generation of high altitude bombers, smart cruise missiles, ICBM's, and ABM systems are proposed and approved by congress. With this new system in place, the US will be able to send a swarm of hypersonic radar-evading cruise missiles carrying a variety of payloads to any place on the globe within 30 minutes. No American or allied target can be touched by any enemy ballistic missile.

2004 - Bush is elected for second term - crime rate has dropped to near zero, US prison population is 50 million (mostly women seeking abortions). Microsoft, however, is not split, business as usual, as the Bush-appointees to the US supreme court throw out the DOJ case. New York city has 20 days above 110 degrees farenheit this summer. The last bit of ocean coral reef is bleached dead. Portland Oregon is evacuated as nuclear waste material from Hanford poisons the Columbia river.

2008 - US throws out two-term presidential limit, as Bush is overwhelmingly re-elected as a write-in candidate. (US election laws were changed to allow internet-only voting, using Microsoft software running only on Windows computers). Linux is outlawed as a "Hacker-tool". US prison population is 100 million. Internet switches to a Microsoft-proprietary protocol, TCPIP is outlawed. Linux outlaws still communicate via dial-up BBSes. The last rogue unregulated wireless "bbs" networks were stamped out by the FCC. No new TV programs or movies have been released since 2005, all entertainment content is pay-per-use, via the internet. Microsoft now owns most major media companies, including TimeWarner/AOL. AOL subsribers were all migrated to MSN. US Postal service has assigned each American an email address: john.q.public@xxx-xx-xxxx.hotmail.com (where xxx-xx-xxxx is your social security number).
Global ocean levels have risen 20 feet as polar icecaps melt.
New military weapons become available. ABM system turns out to be an expensive scam, as the US congress scrambles to get defense contractors to fix it.

2010 - US, Australia, and EU combine with Russia as a northern superpower. Microsoft's orbital mind-control lasers keep OPEC nations in line after the great depression of 2002 caused by rising energy costs. Alaskan oil keeps flowing. North Pacific fishing is almost completely halted after a huge oil spill spreads a slick from Tokyo to Seattle. The last American national observatory is closed as no stars are currently visible. 1 billion die of starvation. (mostly 3rd world countries) - US destroys 70 billion tons of grain as part of a price support program.
20 million US prison inmates are executed. Mostly former Linux "hacktivists". Except in remote locations of Antarctica, water does not exist in a solid state anywhere on the surface of earth. Most people are living in refugee camps as their coastal cities are flooded.

2014 - US sends troops to China to supress a revolution that started when the Chinese govt. was unable to feed large segments of the rural population. A nuclear/biowar exchange ensues. 1 billion are killed.

2020 - 3 billion people (mostly 3rd world nations and Russians and Chinese, but including 10 million Americans and Europeans of skin or lung cancer) die of starvation, disease, or natural disasters as the climate spins out of control. Anchorage Alaska has 10 days above 110 degrees this summer. Though there's nobody living there as an uncapped oil well continues to spew into the pacific. Earth's last tree dies. It was cut down and made into a desk for George Bush.

2030 - George Bush dies during an expolsion of a chemical plant in New Jersey. Taking 20 million residents of the East Coast with him, as a cloud of deadly chemicals rains down into the atlantic ocean. Earth's remaining human population dwindles to 100 million - as the few living humans have an almost zero fertility rate. Almost 20 million are inmates who escaped from a gigantic prison facility in the New Mexico desert. It is the largest concentration of humans left on the planet. Unfortunately, most are male, and the percentage of homosexuality is very high (even among women) because these people were originally jailed for either being homosexual, or being a homosexual sympathyser.

2040 - Earth's final remaining human dies of skin cancer. She had been living on canned beans for 5 years, having found a huge stockpile at a warehouse in Albequerquie.

2590 - Earth's climate has not returned to normal, it can no longer support multi-celled organisms. Most of the pollution and oil has settled, and ocean algae return, and begin to replenish the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere, which, unfortunately, causes a chemical change in the atmosphere, by 2750, the Earth changes from a near hothouse condition, to a global ice age, that locks the surface under miles of ice for 100,000 years. In one spot in New Mexico, a glacier scrubs off the covering of a nuclear waste facility contaning waste from the US, Europe, and Russia. When the glaciers melt, the world's oceans are poisoned with deadly radioactive materials, killing off all algae. The Earth falls back into another ice age, this time, without any life to alter conditions, the ice age lasts 2 million years. A giant meteor hits Earth, causing a crater the size of Texas, puncturing the Earth's crust, and forming a huge cauldron of magma, melting the ice caps. In a small pool of warm water next to the crater, organic molecules form the basic building blocks to begin life. Once the crater cools, ice forms over it, and until the sun expands into a red giant 3 million years later, the ice remains, and Earth remains a dead planet.

5 Million years from now - The Earth is engulfed in solar plasma. George Bush's desk burns.

There's an explanation for this phenomenon. Because of the genetic disadvantages, we've been wired to reject incest.

When you're "best freinds" with a chick, they're basically perceiving you as their brother, so they're wired against being "that way" with you, because that would be incest. It's hard to distinguish between a good close friend, and a brother - biologically, subconsciously.

If such a relationship DOES turn "that way", then it's likely that their genetic programming against incest is out of whack. So worry about those.:)

I've always thought of that "attitude" that we're better than our ancestors, and that our future generations will be better than us, was naive. Very naive.

We're no better off than we were 2000 years ago. Read the Bible, and look at how the people supposedly behaved in that era - not much better or worse than we behave now, new scientific knowledge gained notwithstanding.

This is actually a great strategy, as the divorcee with kids is often getting Child Support payments in large excess of what it actually costs to raise the kids, so you get to be a dad, without the expense.

I have a freind who's ex and two kids, and drunk-ass unemployed boyfreind are LIVING off his child support as sole income. Neither work, and she doesn't pay income tax on the support.

However, he may be having an "accident" soon. That's MY prediction for the new year. . .
;)

One thing has never changed over time - the future always has been, is, and will be People.

For every visionary, there will be thousands of nay sayers, telling us that "IT" can't be done. For every project, for every hope, for every dream, there will be people putting blood, sweat and tears into every little detail.

For every hurt, for every hatred, for every catastrophe (may they all be few), there will be people affected.

Behind every new moment, there will be people. Some people will support everything that moment represents. Some people will oppose everything that moment represents. Some people will have mixed reactions to any given moment.

But above all, we need to rememember that each moment was created by People. No moment exists in a vacuum.

reminds me of that futurama episode where they go to the amusement park, like the new york of 2000, where groups of cowboys, who talk like surfers, ride hover-scooters, and go mammoth hunting with spears. . . hilarious.

Let me give you some encouragement. Firstly, not all women want the same thing. Everyone has different tastes and desires. Secondly, depending on how you define "nice guy," many women do want that. Here's the lowdown:

Many women try for the "bad boys" for awhile, hoping to be able to reform them somehow (the idea of "reforming your man" is a commonly attractive idea for women). Once they realize that they can't reform them or in any way live in close proximity to them, they drop them and start looking for someone better. Don't bother making a play on a woman if she hasn't reached this stage (most have gotten over this by college).

Even once they reach this stage, a woman is still not exactly looking for a "nice guy." A better term for what these women want is a "good guy". Don't be fooled--there's a big difference. It's mostly a matter of motivation. The so-called nice guy is motivated by self-deprecation. He doesn't feel like he is worth the love that someone can show him. He is a doormat to be trampled on. A good guy, on the other hand, is motivated by an essential goodness toward others. He is kind and considerate to others because he is a morally good person--NOT because he thinks himself inferior. In fact, he holds himself in reasonable esteem. While the nice guy responds to being shot down with mournful sadness, the good guy responds with a shrug of the shoulder. He doesn't pine for the girl he wants, he just laughs it off because there are plenty of fish in the sea. There are so many good-looking women out there that if one turns you down, there's absolutely no need to worry--just go try the next one. There are millions upon millions just waiting to be asked out.

Final thoughts:

Go right out and get 'em. Say something like, "Hey! wanna go get something to eat?" or, "Hey! let's go to a movie." They'll interpret this as a "move." If they accept with any kind of gusto, they're interested. If they seem reluctant, don't mess with them anymore (don't be nasty, just say, "Oh, too bad." and go ask another one out until you find one that seems excited about it.

Don't ever say anything bad about yourself unless it's purely done in a joking manner. This is important. The image you must present should always be one of self-acceptance and satisfaction with yourself. I would suggest not even thinking self-deprecating thoughts--it tends to seep into your thinking and come out when you don't expect it.

Ultimately, just act like you couldn't care less whether the girl is interested in you or not. Care just enough to ask them out but whether they turn you down or not, take it all in stride. Act calm and collected at all times.

I hope this helps somewhat. Stick in there--we're all in this together.

Since the creation of corporations, throughout human history, there has been several attempts at "reigning-in" these "little cancerous individuals". All of them have failed, in most cases, resulting in a backlash that leaves the whole in a worse state than before - often accompanied by a huge media-carried blitz of propaganda blaming regulation and socialism for the turmoil and bad times. The lunatic fringe wackos that espouse the opposite viewpoint will be perceived as lunatic fringe wackos (aka little cancerous individuals) until all resistance to the "corporate meme" has been destroyed.

If you look at it in a darwinian sense, and at how well positioned monopolies/oligopolies, and multinationals are, you will quickly realize that there is absolutely no chance that the stronger animal will survive, and destroy the weaker animal. It will not be a pretty picture - and will ultimately result in the destruction of humanity, and probably all life on the planet. I'm guessing we have less than 100 years left.

The Bible isn't usually considered by historians to be a great primary source of historical data, but even so I think it reinforces the idea of cultural advancement. Compare the events of the New Testament, which occurred around 2000 years ago, with those of the Old Testament, which occurred over a much earlier period of time. The latter tends to be a lot more bloodthirsty. One thing that's started to appear in this century is military intervention by the US and other nations for purely humanitarian reasons; I can't remember anything like that happening before.--

o Genetic engineering will allow creation of a vast array of new
lifeforms. By 2015 a new species will be created. By 2045 a new
family branch will be created.

o Humans will be engineered with both animal, plant, and totally new
genes. Some of these humans will become successful.

o Human engineering will become accepted at first with prejudice.
Later, engineered humans will be finally become fully accepted
after several engineered humans make famous contributions.

o The large increase in genetic creations comes at a good time because
a rogue country or organization releases a plague which causes
a large decrease in bio-diveristy for an extended number of years.
But enough organisms and humans survive to repopulate the planet.
It will be a close call.

o Micro-machines will also play a significant part, though not as large
a part, as initially expected. Genetic lifeforms will establish
their superiority through natural selection.

o After a consolidation period of 150 years (starting from 1969 - first
lunar landing), humans and bio-engineered homo-sapiens (BIOEHS)
(BIOS for short) begin in ernest to permanently inhabit the moon,
asteroids, Mars, and Jupiter's moons. Lifeforms, but not humans,
will be sent to the nearest star. The name of the ship will be The Ark.

o All the above will enabled by the global communications provided
by the Internet which will become as ubiquious as pencil and paper
are in 2001. Paper and pencil will still exist but will become
expensive.

o Computers will continue to get faster allowing us to play better and
more realistic computer games.

o Global corporations will become more important than many smaller
countries. Corporations will begin making their own laws and
will use economic sanctions to enfore those laws. Corporations
will begin to resemble medieval feudal states.

o The United States, much as Rome, will continue to dominate world
politics for several hundred years. The rise and fall of the
United States will roughly parallel the history of the Roman Empire.

o The limits of the seeable universe will continue to be pushed out
at the same the the limits of the atom are dissected.
It will be discovered that the universe is, for all practical purposes,
infinite as is the composition of the atom.

o Within the next 150 years, the energy source powering quasars, black
holes, and X-ray bursts will be understood. This energy source
will become irrestible to scientists. But it will pose a threat of
destruction of the planet greater than from nuclear fission.
It will be another close call.

o Larger airplanes and ships will be built. There will be a few
disasters greater than the Hindenburg and Titanic.

o Human lifespans will be extended 1 year for every 2 years time.
A baby born in 150 years can expect to live to 190, barring accidents.

o Many more false prophets appear. The true Messiah does not return
in the next 150 years.

o People in 150 years think of this period in history as quaint.
But they continue to make our same dumb mistakes.

*g* I see we have another college kid who hasn't yet figured out that there's such a thing as _social_ evolution.

What use is a drone bee to a beehive? It doesn't do work like worker bees.;)

I think in the new millenium people will be dragged kicking and screaming into a better understanding of _social_ wellbeing, largely due to a terrible decay of social healthiness brought about by just such opinions as the one I'm replying to, though it may be simply a joke. The freaky thing is, it may well be no joke on the part of 'ezzewezza', as it's sort of a Randite wet dream and there's a lot of that about.

Humanity _is_ a hive organism. Corporations are also a hive organism. The difference is, humans evolved politics and government to try and keep the collective organism healthier, after many centuries of watching how little cancerous individuals tore hell out of the collective organism, and then, inevitably, died, leaving nothing but a bloody history and sometimes a list of children worked to death in sweatshops or something.

I would say there's a very good chance of society recognizing that societal health is real, tangible, desirable: I would also say it is only going to happen through unthinkable abuses and assaults on social wellbeing by rugged individualists (with bombs, pollution, computer programs, tricks to profit by others' gullibility). So cheers Randites: even you have your place!:) You can be the poison that builds social immunity to your form of sickness:)

The top-bracket federal tax rate will have risen to over 50%. Denmark will have a national inferiority crisis when it wonders how the US could have a more replete welfare state.

Despite all the tax revenue, the US space program will be stuck in Earth-orbit. On the other hand, we will all have handheld PDAs capable of playing Quake at nearly 1000fps with full-3D visor display output capability.

In a related development, the Quake13 engine will be licensed primarily by enterprising pornographers.

The Internet will become totally wireless except for the fattest connections.

Fusion will still not be viable, but gas and methanol fired power plants will become the norm.

Microsoft will have a plurality in OS market share. It would be a majority, but a new, unexpected competitor will have come to market.

Later this year, the RIAA and the MPAA are going to merge, and become globalised, forming the American Entertainment Industry Association. This will probably mark the turning point in their fortunes. They'll try to restrict 'piracy' to the point where people say "I can't be bothered entering my 25-digit Entertainment Device User Identification Number every 5 minutes to watch Stupid Movie, I'll walk the dog Instead." People's apathy will be the most powerful weapon against restrictive copyright. It will also be the best weapon for it. People don't mind being in chains, as long as the don't have to do anything to keep out of trouble. People are strange sometimes.

Linux will have more gains, especially in server space, but Windows will remain the most used. Microsoft will announce Windows 2002. "With Innovative Features, Designed for the Internet" (meaning annoying-paperclip.microsoft.com) However it will probably need a subscription to avoid being crippled.

On a similar subject, KDE and Gnome are going to become either very interoperable that KDE apps == Gnome Apps, or a third contender will come from nowhere, and it will be very different i.e No panel, No desktop, something else.

Linux stocks will start to rise again, but not the giddy rollercoster of last year. They'll be viewed as a 'Microsoft Insurance Policy' If MS gets split up, you'll have your Linux stocks.

MacOS X will rock, despite initial misgivings by macheads, and steal some market from Windows, especially in schools, and people with young kids. (Why? "Daddy Daddy! I want This Computer, the one with the cute interface, That one over there looks boring!) and also the 'Creative' market (Artists, Writers, etc)

OpenFlash. Macromedia may announce they'll release an open source version of their player. (not the editor though)

NonTech

Saddam (Iraq) will try to get involved with the Palestine/Israel conflict. GW will try to do a peace deal, but will fail. A non-world-leader will get the two sides talking. The conflict won't end, not anytime soon, but I reckon the key will be getting both sides to realise that the other side has a point, and to put aside all the bad blood up to this point.

There will be a hostage crisis in the bit of land that India and Pakistan both claim. There will be a few harsh words, and some missiles pointed at, but somebody will get them to see sense.

A 'Geek' will get bashed nearly dead by some classmates. There'll be a hoo-haa, media will actually be on the Geeks side, claiming massive intolerance at school. Jon Katz will get on TV. only 15 seconds though, so it won't be too boring:)

And either Linus Torvalds or Richard Stallman will get mentioned in the news for something other GNU/Linux, but that will be mentioned.

Silly Stuff

Richard Stallman will put Linux instead of GNU/Linux, but only once

Some solar system object will do something to another object

Sig11 will return to slashdot

Atlantis will rise from the sea

And some idiot will write a whole lot of predictions that took far to long to make up and are about as likely as said idiot getting $1bn in the mail from an anonymous sender, postmarked from Redmond.:)

Basalisk, the anti-Nostradamus

BTW I think you can guess what my real email addy is. If you can't, I do not want to make money fast.

Mass Transit will become all the rage, as "The Claw" (picks you up in place and deposits you at destination like a claw game in an arcade) and an elaborate system of catapults, nets, parachutes and fly-by-wire technologies are deployed.

3 dimensional zero-g pool will become the game of space hustlers.

Somebody will successfully market flying cars for about a quarter, until some student driver crashes a flying SUV into the factory.

McDonalds will perfect replicator technology like in Star Trek, and build a chain of pay replicator kiosks throughout the world. They will be sued, because the food will be too hot.

Autonomous robot pooper scoopers.

Missle Defense system sold to AOL-Time/Warner for use as 4th of July spectacle.

I raise my glass to the sights and sounds of an era past. Man's triumphs and failures of the past 1000 years represent the work of a truly remarkable culture. May nothing stand between man's vision and its achievement. Godspeed.

Appropriately enough, Arthur C. Clarke said it best. "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible."

.. and I'll tell you why. All it does is serve as a reminder, to me anyway, that I am alone. Not ALONE alone (I have my wonderful parents and friends, whom I love very much,) but rather I am alone in a relationship sense. I've had no less then 10 ICQ messages that include the phrase 'be sure to kiss someone on New Years.' Guess what? I have nobody.

It's not that I'm quasimodo-ugly; I've had people tell me that I am actually quite attractive. However, here's the catch -- women don't seem to be interested in me IN THAT WAY. They'd rather be my friend then my significant other. (In fact, my female friends outweigh my male friends about 5 to 1.) I'm nice, warm, caring -- exactly what these women are looking for (I'm generalising, of course, but this is what I've been told.) and yet they can't see the forest for the trees.

So, what will the New Year bring? The next 100 years? Women will bitch and complain to their best male friends that there are no decent guys around, and all men are assholes. They will whine that they can't find a decent guy to go out with. I have a message for you women who say that -- WE'RE RIGHT HERE -- we're the ones that you're complaining too. Give that geek who you're best friends with a chance -- we're great listeners, and have fantastic job prospects.

There are alot of science fiction fantasies that people are expecting to become reality in the new century, eg warp speed and AI. And while I see us developing increasingly powerful supercomputers I don't see them gaining sentience -- ever. Similarly, as anyone who looked over this [nasa.gov] nasa website posted earlier today would agree that warp driven space travel is a long long way off. Honestly IMO the only major sci-fi topic that we've made significant progress on is genetics and cloning. We can clone mammals and we have the human genome in our reach. I have little doubt that genetically designing your children (ala Gattica) will be possible within 25 years. I say this knowing that my university (Princeton) is currently throwing the majority of its resources at genetic research over other important and cutting edge fields - including Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, EE, Materials Research and Computer Science. Genetics is where the money is going and where the results are happening. I've always found the genetics stories of science ficion to be the scariest, however. More and more I see that this is because the fears raised by those books and movies are closer and closer to becoming reality.

Now before you all jump on me for saing tat genetics is the only are where real progress has been made, let me say that I also agree that major progress has been made with the internet and that it has and will continue to change the world as it is more integrated into our lives. However I don't consider the internet to have been a fantastic dream of sci-fi come to life - I see it more as a foregone conclusion as soon as the first telegraph was built. Physics has had its time in the sun - biology is the cutting edge now.

What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.

You know, out of all the possible futures devised by science fiction writers, I always liked Arthur C. Clarke's the best. He didn't portray utopias, but you got the sense that in the futures he created we had progressed as a species, scientifically and culturally. That's what I hope for the next hundred years; a progression, for us becoming a more mature society. We're not going to have a perfect world, but I'll be happy if we can just make it a better one than we have now.--

Grampa started talking about computers the other day, like they were something to be proud of. He mentioned how he got his very first computer before the turn of the millenium, and how it was one of the fastest computers at the time, almost 1 Ghz. He's so embarressing. Didn't anyone in his day tell him about there first model T and how it actually managed to reach 20 mph and maybe go 500 miles without breaking down, all without no air conditioning or automatic pilot?

Then he went on about some free software thing named after a penguin or something. Something about people sharing code for programs and not having programming AIs, and how sharing is more ethical. Like I actually care. He should have been a hippy instead, at least that free love thing sounded interesting. He keeps doing this in front of company too, they are beginning to avoid him when he walks down the street, especially when he breaks out his old "industrial", "metal", and "punk" albums with all the funny names and really bad lyrics that go along with really bad music. Then he dares to call my music crap. How could he have ever been with the times if he doesn't understand the quality I listen to?

He's so weird. Maybe he should be in a home or something. He says "hello" and "good day" to the biobots, and I think I saw him try to tip one in the restraunt the other day. His year-old medical scans show no senility, but I wonder if they should test him again. He lectured me on the freedoms of paper money the other day when I asked him for a few bucks so I could watch a movie, I think he actually preferred the germ-covered greasy pieces of green paper that could be easily lost and even stolen in a physical act of violence! *Sigh* Can't he tell that the world today is a much safer place? He keeps ranting about how there used to be "organic" food when he was younger, and meat came from animals. Ewww. I would never eat a potatoe that grew in the dirt, and I would never eat another steak if I had to kill a cow. Anyways, I read a few books from around Grandpa's time, they usually sprayed their crops with nasty toxins to reduce disease, and most of their animals that they raised were stuffed in tiny stalls and fed corn, a dirty process, and much more wasteful, its more efficient to grow meat directly on the plant. But if you believe what grandpa says, it must have been the dark ages, no genetic engineering, and primitive medical science. Could you beleve that people could reach a clinic and then die? Or even be diagnosed with a "terminal" disease and live months, or even a year, before dying, without the doctors being able to do anything?

Speaking of doctors, grandpa still tells me that the occasional joint I smoke will drive me insane and then kill me. He is so paranoid, but I guess that's what happens if you grow up in a time of prohibition. He told me how "smokers" in his day often died of lung cancer. He just doesn't understand. Its THC, not nicotine. I know nicotine is dangerous, that's why they outlawed it years ago and replaced it with tobacco grown with a synnicotine gene. The cigarettes we smoke now are specially grown from genetically engineered plants that is gaurenteed not to harm us, and even if we did get cancer, its easily cured.

Grampa also doesn't like my pet miniature griffon. He keeps muttering how a dog or a cat is more real. Its times like these that I think he's one of those flat-earther nuts. Next thing you'll know, he'll start ranting about how humans aren't supposed to live on Mars, and how artificial wombs are wrong.

I think grandpa is turning into one of those old folks who will always live in the past. His house is full of books, he has old 2D videos, some in black and white (which makes them a classic, in his eyes), and even an old boxy thing that he says was a computer. I'm tempted to buy him a slide ruler for Christmas as a joke, but he'd probably add it to his collection. He found an old "video game console" called a "playstation2" the other week, and called all the local stores in town until he found one antique store that carried the equipment he needed to hook it up to his 2D set. Then he tried to get me to play the lame games with all the blocky, cheesy graphics. When I mentioned that any 1st grader could tell that a computer made the pictures, he told me that it was "top of the line" in his day.

At least he's happy hanging out at the local senior center all day, talking to the other old farts. Its good that he enjoys his life, after all, he's only 100, he easily could live for another 50 years.

Computers will continue to get faster and faster, and most of the general public will buy it, because the latest release of Microsoft Office requires loads of RAM and CPU for the 3D-rendered texture-mapped virtual reality paperclip. Or 3D-rendered badly-drawn cat, if you prefer.

Linux will succeed beyond all hopes and dreams (well, except this one <g>), then another, better operating system will overtake it. How something can be better than Linux's potential is beyond me at the moment, but let's not forget that it is not the future yet.

There will be stable Linux drivers for my Radeon (sorry, had to put that in there).

There will be no more wars, and everyone will have basic necessities... yeah right. Hope all you want, but we're only humans (AFAIK)

There will be a great technological advancement that will change world culture dramatically. Everyone will immediately say that they had been pondering that very idea twenty years ago. Too bad I can't put a finger on what it is.

Geeks will still be around, but their social status will change. No "suit" will ever care to admit how much of a role they play in the infrastructure they all come to rely on, but the line will continue to be blurred as the geeks take over a small sector of the world. Most of the general public won't care.

timothy will find lots more useful stories to post on Slashdot, but nobody will realize it, which is too bad because he's a cool person (he Slashdotted on my box once:)

Ken will add more to this list. Nevermind -- he'll probably forget he posted this by tomorrow morning.

That's all for now. Good night. And pretend that nothing happened, because besides from a few parties, nothing did.